Re: times today and sunblock

In message <memo.20060803175313.1476H@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Richard L Clauson <rclauson@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes
In article <Cnz45o36Ke0EFwpY@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, nospam@xxxxxxxxx (Paul
Harris) on Thu, 3 Aug 2006 12:49:14 +0100 wrote:

You top posted.

What do you mean by "top posted".

You posted your reply above the point to which you were replying which is generally considered to be bad form in usenet.

I made a comment on the exact message
in the thread I meant to, and didn't start a totally new thread.

It just refers to writing the reply above the point to which you are replying rather than after the point so that it appears in context, it is nothing to do with starting a new thread.

You didn't trim what you were replying to.

If everything is trimmed out then there is no consistency with what is
being commented on, because not all newsgroup systems provide the postings
in the order that they were written/created, and sometimes not all of them
reach everyone who is in a newsgroup.

Correct which is why you should leave sufficient of the previous posting for everyone to read the reply in context.

I don't want to have a teach in but the FAQ says:
Quote moderately, and write concisely. Responses should follow corresponding trimmed quotes

We did discuss how to explain it better but that was the best we could come up with at the time however the following humorous quote may help to explain it better than I can.

A: Top posters.
Q: What is the most annoying thing on Usenet?

Your signature line exceeds the recommended length for both usenet in
general and this group in particular.

Recommendations are just that. :-) I only use this signature in Scouting
newsgroups and emails as it, graphically, advertises the Essex support
team I'm a member of.

I agree that recommendations are nothing more than what others believe to be best practise. We adopted the accepted usenet standard for URS which is ** Signatures should be a maximum of four lines of up to 80 characters. It really isn't quite as important these days to most of us who are on broadband but we should still be mindful of those who are not so fortunate which is why trimming and sig. lengths were the rule.

Please don't let this descend into a flame war ...

It won't.

Glad to hear that, still we are now well off topic.

( Hi to a fellow member of Essex Scouts. :-) )

Hi to you as well, no doubt see you soon ;-)
--
Paul Harris
.

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